WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL
VERSION. Copyright Š 973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by
permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

One would think after 2,000 years of church history there
would be no question about who Jesus Christ is. Yet even today there are
arguments about Christwhether or not He is the Father in another form; or
whether there are three coequal Gods, as in the doctrine of the Trinity.

I am not writing as a theologian but as a disciple who has
pursued the Lord for more than sixty years. Some aspects of this problem, at
least, seem to be clear in my mind.

WHO IS JESUS CHRIST?

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the
prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has
spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through
whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of Gods glory and the
exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful
word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the
angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. (Hebrews 1:1-4)

In these last days God has spoken to us by His Son. This
is established.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. This is established.

Jesus Christ is the Heir of all things. This is
established.

God made the universe through Jesus Christ. This is
established.

Jesus Christ is the Radiance of Gods Glory. This is
established.

Jesus Christ is the exact representation of Gods Being.
This is established.

Jesus Christ upholds all things by His powerful word.
This is established.

Jesus Christ provided purification for our sin by dying
on the cross. This is established.

Jesus Christ sat down at the right hand of God in
Heaven. This is established.

Jesus Christ is much superior to the angels. This is
established.

The name Jesus Christ has inherited is much superior to
theirs. This is established.

If one believes in the full inspiration of the Bible, the above eleven
facts cannot be denied. Before we discuss them, lets think a little bit about
what a god is.

God has made Jesus Christ our God. We are to worship the Father and the
Son.

The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.
(Psalms 45:11)

What is a god?

A god is a person, a thing, or a circumstance we worship.

What does it mean to worship?

To worship a person, a thing, or a circumstance is to look to him, her, or
it for joy; for fulfillment; for protection; for wisdom and understanding; for
life itself. We honor and bow down before our god. We are obedient to our god.
We serve our god. We think about our god constantly. We sacrifice ourselves
for our god. We want to possess our god, to make him, or her, or it part of
ourselves; to immerse ourselves in our god. We place our god before all else. We
love our god with all our heart. We are jealous of anyone who has more of our
god than we do.

We may say the Father and the Son are our God. But our God is who or what
we actually worship.

Perhaps the chief god of the Western nations is money.

We look to money for joy, for fulfillment for protection, for life itself.
We are obedient to money. We think about money constantly. We sacrifice
ourselves and our family for money. We want to possess money, to make it part
of ourselves, to immerse ourselves in money. We love money with all our heart.
We are jealous of someone who has more money than we do.

We may come to church and praise the Father and the Son in song. But money
comes first. If we have to choose between serving God and making more money,
we will choose money.

We say the Father and the Son are our god. But our god is money.

The same can be said of physical lust, of entertainment, of material
possessions, of our own selves.

We Americans talk much about romantic love. Romantic love often is the
worship of a person of the opposite sex.

Who or what we worship tends to make us in his, her, or its image.

The person who worships money becomes a Scrooge, a selfish, self-seeking
individual who worships himself. In the spirit realm he or she is a dwarf.

The person who worships physical lust becomes indecisive and weak in
character. In the spirit realm he or she is seen as a slobbering ghoul.

The person who worships entertainment becomes silly and frivolous in
character. In the spirit realm he or she is seen as without weight,
immature, an undependable child.

The person who worships material possessions is spiritually dead. In the
spirit realm he or she is seen as lifeless.

God wants us in His image.

God becomes jealous when we worship any other god. He desires and deserves
our worship.

As we gaze upon God we are transformed into his image, just as when we gaze
upon lesser persons, things, and circumstances we become transformed into
their image.

God has commanded us to worship Jesus. How can God safely command us to
worship another than Himself? God can command us to worship Jesus because
Jesus worships God and is the express image of God. So when we worship Jesus
we are transformed into the image that God desires, the image of the sons of
God.

The worship of any god other than the Father brings us into slavery to that
other god. All sin is a product of the worship of false gods. Whoever commits
sin is a slave of that sin. We always are a slave of our gods, whether lesser
gods or the true God.

Christ sets us free from false gods so we are able to worship the one
supreme God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we are willing to make
Jesus Christ our God we find we are being lifted up to the supreme God, the
Father.

To worship the Father is to be His slave, for we humans have to be in
slavery to someone or something. When we refuse to be the slave of God, we
become the slaves of ourselves. This is the way we have been created. We will
be a slave of God, or of some other person, or of some thing or some
circumstance, or ourselves. This is inescapable.

Whoever chooses to become a slave of Jesus Christ automatically becomes a
slave of God, because Christ always gives all that is of Himself to the
Father.

Whoever decides to be the slave of Jesus Christ becomes the slave of
righteousness and is free from sin.

Only God the Father acting through the Lord Jesus Christ can bring us
lasting joy, personal fulfillment, perfect protection, universal wisdom and
understanding, and eternal life. Whenever we seek these treasures somewhere
other than in Christ we become the slaves of that lesser god and never find
the desires of our heart.

The true God always seeks our perfect joy, and that perfect joy can be
obtained only as we bow down in worship before Him.

All lesser gods care only for themselves. Satan and his angels care only
for themselves. Therefore when we choose a god other than the true God we
bringing ourselves into captivity to that which seeks its own, and we are left
in rags, in misery, and sometimes in torment.

The wise individual, the one who desires eternal life, eternal joy, eternal
peace, will worship the true God through Jesus Christ. The foolish person will
serve a false god and will never experience eternal life, eternal joy, or
eternal peace.

And now to the eleven things spoken concerning Christ, in the first chapter
of the Book of Hebrews.

In these last days God has spoken to us by His Son.

A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I
have chosen; listen to him." (Luke 9:35)

I understand intelligent, devout scholars have advanced
the doctrine that Jesus Christ is an expression of the Father, such that
Jesus Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit actually are the same Person
although in different manifestations.

I understand also that equally intelligent, devout scholars
have maintained that God is a union of three Persons who are coequal and
coeternal. This Personage is referred to as the Trinity.

From my point of view, both of these positions are confusing,
somewhat destructive in terms of what God is doing today, and unscriptural.

The Lord Jesus Christ is called the Son of God. This to me is
so simple. If the Lord Jesus actually is Gods Son, then both of the positions
I mentioned previously are incorrect.

For instance, if Jesus really is Gods Son, then He is not the
Father in another manifestation. What son is the same person as his father? To
say that Jesus and the Father are the same Person defies numerous passages of
the New Testament.

To maintain that Jesus is a Person equal to the Father also
defies numerous passages of the New Testament. The New Testament clearly
states that Jesus is Gods Son and is obedient to His Father in Heaven, to
whom He prays.

If the New Testament states that Jesus is Gods Son, then two
facts are evident: Jesus is not the Father; and Jesus is not equal to the
Father.

Jesus Himself said, "The Father is greater than I."

You heard me say, "I am going away and I am coming back to
you." If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father,
for the Father is greater than I. (John 14:28)

One time I heard a complicated explanation of why John
14:28 does not mean what it says.

You know what? I do not accept explanations that remove the
plain meaning of the Scriptures.

God wrote His Bible so ordinary people can understand it. We
do not need priests or theologians to tell us what the Bible means. If we have
a question, we can go to the Lord in prayer and He will give us wisdom.

I notice that some versions of the New Testament have
footnotes that employ the Greek language to prove the passage does not mean
what the ordinary person would understand it to mean. I think this whole
business of denying plain meaning on the basis of Greek grammar or linguistics
is suspect. I am persuaded those Greek or Hebrews scholars have an
agendasomething they are trying to prove. I think this is apparent also in
some of the newer translations, although all the translations I have seen are
helpful in one passage or another.

It is important that we do not attempt to make the Bible
understandable by adding words or arranging the syntax in order to fit the
current traditions. We are discovering some of our most venerable traditions
are not scriptural. This is because God is adding to us the Spirit of wisdom
and revelation.

We understand, for example, that when the Lord said He would come again to
receive us to Himself, He does not mean He is going to take us to Heaven.
Rather, it means what it says. He is coming today in the spirit realm to draw
us closer to Himself. The remainder of the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of
John bears this out. Some of the translations are implying that the Lord Jesus
wants to bring us "home" to Heaven. This does not fit the context of the
chapter, which has to do with the Father dwelling in Christ, and Christ and
the Father making Their home in us.

Jesus is Gods Son. There is a reason the Holy Spirit has
placed this simple relationship in the Scripture. We all know what a son is. A
son is not his father in another form, although he may be just like his father
and his father may have assigned all his possessions to his son. He may look
like his father. He may act like his father. But he is not his father. A son
obeys his father.

It also is true that a mans son is not another person as old
as the man; neither does he have the wisdom of his father. Ordinarily he is
subject to his father. This especially is true in the case of Jesus and His
Father. All that Jesus has was given to Him by His Father. He is His Fathers
Heir. Therefore to maintain that Jesus is another person on the same level as
His Father is not defensible. The Scripture does not state or imply this. It
states and implies in many instances that Jesus is subject to the Father.

For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when
it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear this does
not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done
this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything
under him, so God may be all in all. (I Corinthians 15:27,28)

The above verse shows that Jesus Christ is a different
Person from the Father and also that He is subject to the Father. To teach
otherwise is to deny the infallibility of the Scriptures.

One problem that arises in the discussion of the Godhead is
the trap of thinking of "God" as a proper name. "God" is not Gods name. It is
a title. We do not know what Gods name is. Personally I doubt if the Father
has a name. Actually He is too great and profound to have a name. The Father
had no parents, no one to assign a name to Him.

When John said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God, it does not mean the Word was or is the
Father. It means both the Father and the Son are exalted as Gods. This is
because the Father has called His Son, God.

Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter
of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and
hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your
companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. (Psalms 45:6,7)

It is God who has named His Son, God, meaning Jesus is to
be worshiped as God. God has assigned this to Jesus. The Scriptures are
absolutely clear on this point. The Lord Jesus created us, as the Father
worked in Him, and is to be worshiped. He is God in His own right. But He
is not the same Person as His Father.

So there is no need to be confused about the issue of whether
Jesus is God. Of course He is God. John referred to Him as God. But Jesus is
not the Father. The Father is the Father. The Son is the Son. The Holy Spirit
is the Holy Spirit.

The problem with making the
Godhead an abstraction we cannot comprehend is that it greatly hinders a clear
understanding of what God is doing today in His churches. Gods plan today
for His church is to bring forth more sons; and not only that, but to
incorporate them into the Divine family.

Have I in any manner detracted from the Lordship of Christ?
Absolutely not! All I am doing is pointing to the clear statements of the
Scripturesstatements that can be understood by the average believer who has
no knowledge of the linguistics, grammar, or construction of the Hebrew or
Greek languages.

There are several excellent interlinear Hebrews and Greek
texts that will enable the average believer to arrive at the exact meaning of
the Scriptures. Footnotes that explain away the apparent sense are not
necessary and serve only to perpetuate the current errors.

One of the main purposes of
the writer of the Book of Hebrews was to reveal the greatness of Christ and
the superiority of the new covenant; and in so doing to point us toward the
full extent of our salvation.

It is apparent from the text of Hebrews that these Jewish
believers had been saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, persecuted, and then
had withdrawn from the pursuit of the rest of God, of that place of full
inheritance in the center of Gods Person and will.
For instance, they had to be reminded to assemble on a
consistent basis.

The writer is emphasizing the greatness of Christs position
as Son, and then goes on to stress that we have been called to this same
position. It is not enough to be saved and filled with the Spirit. This is
merely the beginning. Our goal is to press into the rest of God, into that
place where we are living as Jesus always doesin the perfect Center of Gods
will. Also, we are to bear the fruit of righteous behavior.

We are destined to govern the works of Gods hands, along with
our elder Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It bears repeating that to
postulate a complex, abstract and unapproachable Godhead may prevent us from
coming into the kind of close relationship with God that He desires to have
with His sons and heirs. Christ coequal with God becomes so far above us that
the idea of our being His brother is unrealistic and foolish. How can
creatures of dust be a brother of One who is coequal with the Father!

But when we realize that Christ is the first of many sons (which in
no manner detracts from His rank as Lord of all), and that His Father is our
Father, His God is our God, then we are encouraged to press into full sonship
and brotherhood.

Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet
returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am
returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." (John
20:17)

So the traditional exalting of Christ to the level of the
Father, while intended to be an expression of our reverence, is actually
destructive of the Fathers intention to make His elect an integral part
of the Divine family. We are called to be one in Christ in the Fatheran
integral part of that Oneness which will be known to the members of the
saved nations as God.

We always produce chaos when we depart from the Scriptures no
matter how pious we may be or how blameless our intentions.

This is the burden of the Book of Hebrews, and is to be
brought to the understanding of Gods people in the day in which we live.
Otherwise we will settle back on the fact that we have been saved and filled
with the Spirit and continue to neglect our great salvation. We are to press
on! press on! press on to the fullness of God!

Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John
3:16)

The fact that Jesus Christ came forth from God, and is of
Gods Nature and Substance, makes Him an integral part of the Deity. In
addition God dwells in Him and He in God.

The Father has referred to Jesus as Lord and Christ. He also
has set Him above His companions, anointing Him with the oil of joy. The
Father has declared that Jesus is God and that His Throne will endure
throughout eternity.

Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter
of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and
hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your
companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. (Psalms 45:6,7)

Who the "companions" of Christ were, or are, is unknown to
me.

The term is referring either to personages in the spirit realm
who were with Christ after He created them, or else to people who are members
of the Kingdom of God.

I lean toward the idea that the companions were spirit
personages whom Christ created and with whom He associated during the eons of
time prior to the period when Christ created the physical universe.

We see for example:

One day the angels came to present themselves before the
LORD, and Satan also came with them. (Job 1:6)

The word translated "angels" in the NIV should be "sons of
God." The Hebrew term is sons, not angels.

I understand Jesus Christ is different from the angels in
that He has the name "Son." So the sons of God, who presented themselves
before the Lord, were personages God had created through Christ, but they
were not sons in the same sense as Jesus.

But they may have been companions of Christ, their creator.
While this may seem odd, it seems the most reasonable explanation to me.

At some point the Father made the decision that Jesus Christ,
more than any other, loved righteousness and hated wickedness. On this basis
the Father anointed Him with the oil of joy, that is, with strength above that
of His companions. It is the joy of the Lord that is our strength.

The Father has stated that the heavens and the earth are the
works of Christs hands, and that they shall perish but the years of Christ
will never end.

Christ has experienced death on behalf of others, and has been
made perfect through sufferings. Though He is Gods Son, He learned obedience
through suffering.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Author of salvation for the many
other sons whom God is bringing to glory. This is one of the main emphases of
the Book of Hebrewsthat we should move forward to perfection as sons of God.
Making the Lord Jesus an unapproachable Deity is not in harmony with the
program emphasized in Hebrews.

The Lord Jesus refers to us as His brothers, for we have the
same Father.

We see, then, that Jesus is Son of God and Son of Man. He is
fully of Deity and fully of man, having been born of a human woman. He is our
Lord and we worship Him. We are of His great Body, and members of the Wife of
the Lamb.

We are not bringing down the Lord Jesus from His position at
the right hand of God. Rather we are encouraging all believers to press into
the fullness of their inheritance as sons of God.

Jesus Christ is the Heir of all things.

I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You
are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the
nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. (Psalms
2:7,8)

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and
on earth has been given to me. (Matthew 28:18)

The term "inheritance" (above) is interesting. We know
from the Scripture that Jesus created the nations and the earth. Why does
He have to pray to God to inherit and possess them?

The answer is as follows: A carpenter who is working for a
developer may build many houses. But he does not inherit or possess them.

God through Jesus created all things. But that does not mean
Jesus inherits or possesses them.

In order to inherit the nations and possess the earth, Jesus
had to suffer and die. There was no other way.

It is true of us also. The Bible says that the believer who
gains victory over all that comes against him or her will inherit all that God
has made new in Christ. But in order to gain this inheritance, to be a coheir
with Christ, we have to partake of the sufferings of Christ. We have to fill
up that which still is lacking in regard to Christs afflictions.

Only those who share Christs sufferings will receive the
inheritance with Christ.

Can you see that if we are to enter into the program that is
making us coheirs with Christ we have to understand that He is not an
unapproachable Deity? He is one with us in gaining the inheritance. We
overcome just as He overcame. He makes it possible for us to overcome. He is
our older Brother. Think of it!

Again, the fact that He is our older Brother does not diminish
in any manner His rank as Lord of all. He is King over Gods kings and Lord
over Gods lords.

God made the universe through Jesus Christ.

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or
authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (Colossians 1:16)

Before Jesus Christ was born of Mary, God through Him
created every thing and creature in Heaven and every thing and creature of
the physical world. God created all this to bring joy to His Son. Now God
is adding to these treasures a Bride.

When you think of it, it is a simple picture. God is a Father.
Christ is His Firstborn Son. God is creating a Bride for His Son so He wont
be alone. It is not good for a man to be alone, God has said. At the same
time, God is bringing forth a company of sons as companions for His Son. In
addition, God is creating a living Temple for Himself.

The Bride, the brothers, the sons, the temple, are all the
same people, just different ways of expressing relationships and roles.

Again, we can see the importance of the simple, direct
explanation of the Father and the Son that the New Testament presents.

Jesus Christ is the Radiance of Gods Glory.

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"
made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Christ. (II Corinthians 4:6)

In the beginning, God said, "Let there be light." My own
opinion is that the Person who said this was Christ, as the Father moved
through Him.

It was the same then as it is now. Jesus Christ does nothing
of Himself. It is His Father in Him who does the works.

There was no sun or moon for the first three days.
Yet there were evenings and mornings. This tells us that the Light that made
possible the difference between evening and morning was the Lord Jesus
Himself.

During the new heaven and
earth reign of Christ, the new Jerusalem will have no need of the sun or moon.
The Lamb will be its Lamp. So great will be the splendor of the Glory of God
shining through the Lamb, and shining through the saints (for the Glory God
has given the Lamb, the Lamb has given to the saints), that the saints will
give light to the nations living on the new earth.

As far as the holy city is concerned, there will be no evening
and morning. There will be no night there. God in Christ in the Church will be
the light of the world.

The holy city, the new Jerusalem, is the fullest expression of
the Sabbath. There were six days of creation during which there were evenings
and mornings. But on the seventh, the Sabbath, there was no evening or
morning. Thus the new Jerusalem is the complete expression of the Sabbath, in
which no one lives, moves, or has his being except as God moves through Him.
God is All in all, and all things have been made new in Christ.

Jesus Christ is the exact representation of Gods Being.

Jesus answered: "Dont you know me, Philip, even after I have
been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, Show us the Father? (John 14:9)

It is the above verse that causes people to believe Jesus
is the Father.

The reason Jesus said anyone
who has seen Him has seen the Father is that He is the exact representation of
Gods Being. Whoever has seen Christ has seen the Father, not because Christ
is the Father, but because the Lord did nothing and said nothing except as the
Father acted through Him and spoke through Him.

This sort of relationship was true of the Apostle Paul.
Whoever saw Paul was seeing Christ, so to speak, for Christ was living in
Paul.

This is the relationship that every one of us should seek. We
are to be crucified with Christ, and Christ is to be living, moving, and
having His being in us. This is the rest of God, the eternal Sabbath. We are
to be the light of the world. People are to see Christ in us.

Jesus Christ upholds all things by His powerful word.

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry
host by the breath of his mouth. (Psalms 33:6)

There is no way in which we can grasp the power and
authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Recent scientific investigation concludes that our entire
firmament is but one bubble on a larger firmament, and the larger firmament is
bringing forth new bubbles.

Mass and energy on this scale is not comprehensible to us.

We find God has said the Lord Jesus shall fold up the physical
universe and discard it, much as one would put dirty clothes in a hamper.

The New Testament teaches clearly that God shall do away with
the present earth and heavens and bring forth a new sky and a new earth. There
are some who stagger at this, saying God merely is going to renew the earth.

If God can speak the physical world into existence with a
word, He can withdraw it with a word, and then bring forth a more glorious sky
and earth.

It is my opinion that the new earth will be very much larger
than the present earth. For one thing, there will be many more people on it
because of those raised from the dead. Our present earth is not nearly large
enough for the population that will be raised from the dead and brought into
the new world of righteousness.

Another consideration is the size of the new Jerusalem. It
appears to be a cube 1,400 miles high, or a pyramid 1,400 miles at its base
and 1,400 miles high. I dont believe our earth would be able to support a
city 1,400 miles in height. I think it would throw the earth off balance in
terms of its rotation on its axis.

Just as He removes the old
and makes us a new creation, I believe God will fold up and remove the present
physical creation, as the Book of Hebrews states, and bring into being a new
physical creation that is surpassingly glorious.

I am glad for this. I am looking forward, not backward. The
sooner the past is completely wiped out, the better as far as I am concerned.
I think the Apostle Paul said this also.

We are staggered when the Lord said we could command a
mountain and it would move. How He must have chuckled to Himself when He
thought of the physical creation coming into being at His word, and being
upheld by His word.

In these terms, telling a mountain to move is a very small
matter!

Jesus Christ provided purification for our sin by dying on the
cross.

God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in
his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance
he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished (Romans 3:25)

I would imagine that all believers realize Christ made an
atonement for us by His death on the crossthe innocent on behalf of the
guilty.

Those who have seen Him in glory say the nail prints can still
be observed in His hands, although greatly glorified and embellished as
precious stones.

May we never forget, as we forge ahead to the fullness of what
God has for us, that all of the marvels to come have been made possible
through the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The soul that sins shall die. The only reason God is so
accepting of us is that Christ has made an atonement for mankind on the cross
of Calvary.

Today we may think God just forgives and forgets our sins.
This is not true. The only reason our sins are forgiven and forgotten is
because Someone died as a result of our transgressions. They were not just
overlooked. The full price was paid.

The soul that sins shall die. This Divine law is irrevocable.
Christ died. He paid the price. This is why we can be forgiven so readily.
Even little children are forgiven for His names sake, as the Apostle John
tells us.

We overcome by the blood of the Lamb because the accuser,
Satan, cannot condemn those who are trusting in the blood to redeem them, and
who also are bearing a true testimony and loving not their lives to the point
of death.

The blood is our basic righteousness. Once we have been
justified through our faith in the blood, we then can press forward in the
Lord until with His help we actually have become righteous in behavior. All
was, is, and shall be made possible because Jesus Christ was willing to die in
our place. His death, His shed blood, satisfied the Fathers sense of justice
so totally that all things now are possible to us as we walk hand in hand with
the Lord Jesus.

Hallelujah for the blood!

Jesus Christ sat down at the right hand of God in Heaven.

But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right
hand of the mighty God. (Luke 22:69)

To those who teach that Christ is the Father in another form, I ask,
"How can He be the Father and then be seated at the Fathers right hand?"
In fact, the Lord Jesus never claimed to be the Father!

We also are seated with Him and in Him at the Fathers right
hand.

If there is no Father but Jesus, how then can Jesus we be at
the Fathers right hand? Is Jesus at His own right hand? This makes sense?

I think if we will just walk with Christ, He will reveal the
Father to us. Then we will know the Father for ourselves and not be confused
by theological positions.

All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one
knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the
Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (Matthew 11:27)

On that day you will realize I am in my Father, and you are in
me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who
loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him
and show myself to him." (John 14:20,21)

When we first are saved we learn of Jesus and of His
atoning blood.

After we are saved through the blood, the Holy Spirit becomes
real to us. We receive wisdom and strength from the Spirit so we can live a
holy life and so we can bear witness of the atoning death and triumphant
resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

The blood and the Spirit bring us to the Father. The issue in
knowing the Father is obedience. We are to learn strict, stern obedience to
the Father.

When all have been brought under subjection to Jesus Christ,
then Christ Himself will be subject to the Father that God may be All and in
all.

Such is the Kingdom of Godthe doing of Gods will in the
earth as it is in Heaven.

Jesus Christ is much superior to the angels.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
(Colossians 1:16,17)

Perhaps the Jews who received the letter to the Hebrews
were astonished that Jesus, the carpenters Son, is greater than the
angels.

But no angel has come forth from God as Jesus has.

God did not bring forth the creation through an angel.

No angel is the dwelling place of God.

No angel died on the cross to make an atonement for our
sins.

No angel sits at the right hand of the Father.

No angel has been given all authority in Heaven and upon the
earth.

Yes indeed! The Lord Jesus Christ created the angels in the
beginning and is infinitely greater than the greatest of them.

When we see some of the mightiest of the angels we will be
utterly amazed at their size, strength, wisdom, and glory.

But on the highest throne of all sits a Man with nail prints
in His hands. If we will live a victorious life, as He did, we will be seated
there with Himfar above all other authority and power in the universe. This
is the decision of the Father and it cannot be revoked.

The name Jesus Christ has inherited is much superior to
theirs.

The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and
the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born
will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he
was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily
form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: You are my Son, whom I love;
with you I am well pleased. (Luke 3:21,22)

God has a Son. His name is Jesus. God has given to Him His
Glory, and all else as an inheritance. Now God is bringing forth more sons
who will be brothers to the Firstborn.

The angels are to worship the Firstborn, and they serve as
ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation.

It was in the light of the incredible inheritance that God is
offering us through Christ that the writer of Hebrews warned: "How shall we
escape if we neglect such a great salvation?"

This applies to us today. There is a multitude of distractions
that seek to divert us from the one important goal in life. It is a time of
extraordinary opportunity as well as extraordinary danger.

It may be true that sin is more available to us in the Western
nations than has been the case for any people in any previous era of history.
We need to be careful. Some outstanding Christians of our day have fallen
through deception in spite of the fact that
there is a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resting on the churches today. The
New Testament is becoming increasingly understandable. The relationship of
Christ to the Father is one such "mystery" that now has become as plain as
day.

So let us press on to the fullness. The highest thrones are
waiting for those who care enough to walk with Christ through the tumult of
todays cultures.

There are many unsaved people who will be fine fruit for the
Masters table, and a rich inheritance for those who choose to turn away from
the siren call of money, entertainment, and technology, and focus
their attention and energies on
Jesus Christ instead.

Will you be one who chooses wisely during these momentous
days?

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart
for the gospel of Godthe gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a
descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with
power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our
Lord. (Romans 1:1-4)

Declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead:
Jesus Christ our Lord.